(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a network management system in which a management apparatus collects management information stored by an apparatus to be managed, an apparatus to be managed for use in the network management system, a management apparatus and a program.
(2) Description of the Background Art
In a known network management system, network apparatuses (apparatuses to be managed) such as a printer, a scanner, a fax machine and an MFP (Multifunction Peripheral) are collectively monitored and controlled by a management apparatus provided separately from the apparatuses to be managed through a network using a Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP).
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing the software structure of a network management system constructed in the network using the UDP/IP.
In an apparatus to be managed TNi (i=1-4), as shown in FIG. 4, a Management Information Base (MIB) 111 comprising a group of objects 111a which are a group of management information (objects) about the apparatus to be managed TNi and a MIB tree dictionary 111b which is information for specifying the management information, a communication controller 113 for controlling communications in accordance with the UDP/IP protocol and an SNMP agent 112 which is a program for performing the process of reading and updating the information of the MIB 111 in accordance with a request message (i.e. GET command, GET_NEXT command, SET command) received from a management apparatus TC through the communication controller 113, and of transmitting a reply message (GETREPLY) to the management apparatus TC through the communication controller 113 are packaged.
In the management apparatus TC, on the other hand, an input portion 121 for inputting an instruction from an operator, a display portion 122 for displaying various kinds of information, a group of image data 123 which is a group of image data for use in displaying the outline view of the apparatus to be managed TNi on the display portion 122, a communication a controller 126 for controlling communications in accordance with UDP/IP protocol, an SNMP manager 125 which is a program for obtaining and setting management information using the SNMP agent 112 packaged in the apparatus to be managed TNi by transmitting/receiving the above mentioned request message and reply message (hereinafter collectively referred to as “SNMP messages”) through the communication controller 126, and a controller 124 for performing, in accordance with the instruction input through the input portion 121, the process of, for instance, displaying the information obtained from the apparatus to be managed TNi using the SNMP manager 125 and the outline view of the apparatus to be managed TNi obtained from the group of image data 123 on the display portion 122 are packaged.
In a network management system 100 constructed as above, when the management apparatus TC is started, a list of the apparatuses to be managed TNi which are connected to the network is displayed on the display portion 122. When one of the apparatuses is selected in accordance with the instruction from the input portion 121, the indication on the display portion 122 is switched to a management screen with respect to the selected apparatus to be managed TNi, and then it becomes possible to confirm or change the operating state or the setting state of the apparatus to be managed TNi on the management screen.
FIG. 5 shows an example of the initial screen to be first displayed when the indication on the display is switched to the management screen. The initial screen is designed to indicate the capabilities W1 and the outline view W2 as well as the current operating state W3 and set values W4 of a variety of management information with respect to the apparatus to be managed TNi.
In this case, the outline view W2 is indicated by selecting and using the corresponding image data of the apparatus to be managed TNi from the group of image data 123 stored in the management apparatus TC. The rest of the data W1, W3 and W4 are indicated using the values obtained from the apparatus to be managed TNi by means of SNMP messages.
The reason that the image data concerning the outline view W2 is stored in the management apparatus TC is that since SNMP has a limitation to the maximum length (e.g. 255 bytes) of data that can be obtained by a single message, data of a large size exceeding the maximum length, such as the image data concerning the outline view W2, cannot be obtained by means of SNMP.
In the above described network management system 100, however, the management apparatus TC is required to have as many outline views as the number of the apparatuses to be managed TNi. Accordingly, the more the number of the apparatuses to be managed TNi becomes, the larger storage capacity must be secured for the group of image data 123. Moreover, if a new model apparatus to be managed TNi is connected to the network, the management apparatus TC, in which the corresponding outline view of the new model apparatus to be managed TNi has not yet been stored, cannot indicate the outline view. Therefore, every time a new model apparatus to be managed TNi is connected to the network, the group of image data 123 must be updated.
An object of the present invention is to make it possible to handle data of a large data size without making any changes to the management apparatus in order to solve the above described problems.